Okay, I'm hooked:
It's based on a Hoekens linkage, a perfectly marvelous gadget that makes sense after you've seen it. Especially after you have seen it walk away!
Thanks (indirectly) to The Supersonic Reflectoscope.
Update
6 days ago
10 comments:
Neat-o!
How do you steer it, where do you sit, and--hey, I know Cyrillic when I see it--what size is the warhead?
Srsly, lots of stresses not laid off, limited bearing surface, no design space for supplemental support--it ain't a mule yet.
Wot no zirks?!
Not even close -- making it work in RL is your job. Could you steer it by differential drive/differential braking to the two sides? By bending it in the middle? --I think the latter would introduce some serious synchronization issues, since a simple linkage between front and rear feet on each side wouldn't be possible.
Still -- several $thou', a lawnmower engine and a whole lotta effort and you could make "walk to work day" verrrrry interesting.
Possibly a "half-track" arrangement. Steering wheel(s) in front and drive feet in back.
Lack of a propulsion source seems critical. But, then internal combustion engines are sooo yesterday.
And yet, and yet...
Dollars to doughnuts, DARPA's got one of these clumping around an empty hangar at Wright-Pat.
Here I was wondering where that spike in my stats came from! Thanks for the nod. I enjoyed this video from a theoretical standpoint, but I agree that making a practical walker of it would be difficult.
All the best,
Jim
Wow! That was SO cool. And my chiweenie was transfixed, too. Maybe he thought it walked like a dog?
phlegm this is not the droid you are looking for. It cannot wear high heels.
Ren Hoekens!
and Stimpson J. "Stimpy", um... I dunno.
Did he have a last name?
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